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Boaters at Lake Havasu face a drastic and - to most - an unthinkable change if the mayor of Lake Havasu City has his way.
Mayor Harvey Jackson wants to eliminate mooring in the popular Bridgewater Channel as a means of ridding the area of drunken and lewd behavior and making it more family friendly.
To say residents, businesses and boaters are upset is a Lake Powell-sized understatement.
Some in the community are calling for the mayor's head.
If boats can't park in the channel, the businesses that cater to the drive-up patronage of boaters would suffer serious economic consequences.
Local merchants argue that the move would kill business and put a major dent in tourism.
"The question is, should that area be for us and our community, or should we turn it over to the out-of-towners," Jackson told Today's News-Herald in Havasu. "I can't use the lake any more, and I sold my boat last fall because of the congestion."
He also told the newspaper that he is "very pro-tourism. My vision of tourism is to attract the family-oriented tourist, the kind of tourism that was primarily here in the 1970s."
Many of the tourists who visit Lake Havasu City come from Orange County.
Myles Luas of Anaheim has a house north of Havasu and often hangs out in the channel with his wife and two kids. He's been frequenting the area for 25 years.
He said eliminating the moorings would have a huge impact on Orange County boaters.
"That's where we all go," he said. "We've got Elsinore and a couple of crummy little lakes here, but as far as a big recreational area where we can use our boats, everybody goes to Havasu."
Rob Walters of Anaheim goes boating at Havasu two or three times a month during the summer. The rest of his family is always going there, too. Walters called the proposal ridiculous.
"They can raise the fines for the people that are out of control and acting like idiots ... and don't allow alcohol in the channel," Walters said. "There's all kinds of different ways to go about it."
The bombshell was first dropped Jan. 3 at a City Council work session after the local police department talked about the difficulty of policing the channel during the peak summer boating season and holidays.
The police department wasn't trying to get the channel closed. It just wanted to explore ways of eliminating alcohol consumption that leads to the unwanted behavior.
City Attorney Matt Podracky, at the mayor's directive, is to draw up several ordinances on the issue and present them at a future meeting, probably next month.
In the meantime, the Havasu community is beating the drum of opposition.
The Chamber of Commerce delivered 1,500 letters opposed to the closure to the City Council earlier this week. Signatures are being collected on petitions.
Saturday, some 200 boats full of demonstrators staged a rally in the channel. The News-Herald reported people with signs saying "Keep our channel, dump Harvey" and "Time for another recall."
Harvey and three City Council members won a recall election last September.
The new mayor reportedly promised sweeping changes, but this is one change most did not expect.
